Games

Gold Waddle Dee runs from Kirby as soon as it spots him. If it is inhaled or defeated before it escapes, it drops a Treasure Chest. If it is attacked with the Bubble ability, it turns into a bubble containing a star, and a chest is dropped in the same place. When Kirby opens the chest, the contained treasure is a piece of the Secret Map. Kirby must often solve some sort of puzzle to trap it or race to catch it before it falls off a cliff and gets away. Gold Waddle Dee is no more durable than its more common counterpart.

Gold Waddle Dee appears exclusively in Stage 6 of Dedede Resort. Like in Kirby: Squeak Squad, it flees from the Kirbys. If it gets far enough, it will burrow into the ground, successfully escaping. Defeating the Gold Waddle Dee and clearing the stage accomplishes the "Gold Thrasher" task on the game's Checklist. The enemy is also one of the things that can be fished out of the water in the Fishing Pondsub-game during the staff credits.

Gold Waddle Dee appears in the FighterCombat Chamber, the Smash Combat Chamber, and the Smash Combat Chamber EX. It runs as fast as some Waddle Dees in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, which is not especially quick. Gold Waddle Dee is the only enemy in the game that gives 1000 points upon defeat, and is thus rarer than other enemies.

Trivia

There are unused swimming sprites of Gold Waddle Dee found in the code of Kirby: Squeak Squad, which means that at some point in production, Kirby would have to outswim it to get the Treasure Chest. This would not technically make sense, as a regular Waddle Dee drowns in water.

If Ghost Kirby possesses a Gold Waddle Dee, it cannot attack and can only jump and run. If the player presses the attack button (B), however, its eyes will bulge out as if it is surprised. This animation is normally only used when the Gold Waddle Dee falls off a ledge. Unpossessing it will cause it to disappear, as well as automatically placing its chest in Kirby's Copy Palette.

It is possible that Gold Waddle Dees were added in Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition because they are almost identical to Waddle Dees, which already exist on the game's reused engine. The only difference is that they would have to be recolored to look golden. Altogether, it would take considerably less work to modify a Waddle Dee than it would to create and animate a completely new enemy.